Windows Installation

This guide is designed for experienced computer users. The setting up of workgroup computers should always be carried out by an authorized technician of the workgroup.
Windows 11: Although Microsoft no longer officially supports Windows 11 with the WDS installation service, you can still install Windows 11 via this service for the time being. Please don't use a Microsoft Account for Setup. Instead use under "sign-in option" -> "domain join instead".
The IT group runs a WDS server, a Windows Deployment Service server. This allows any user to install a new Windows operating system on his/her computer via the intranet of the TF. An installation media is not necessary, since all modern computers can now boot directly over the net.
Some offered versions of Windows already include Office and other programs. Pay attention to the shown description when choosing.
If the installation fails (e.g. with the message “missing DHCP server” or “missing mass storage”), this is due to a missing driver in the installation. In this case, please send us the error description and a hardware description (service tag is sufficient if available). Then we can add the missing driver.

 

1. Prerequisite: The computer must already be configured for the TF network usage (DHCP).

2. The computer must boot via PXE. For this purpose, 1. ROM/PXE/boot must be enabled at the networkcard's settings and 2. PXE or NIC must be choosen at boot configuration as first boot device. On some computers this can also be selected in the boot menu.

3. The screen looks as follows for PXE boot. After the PC has received an IP address via DHCP, you must quickly press <F12> to start the WDS installation process.

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4. From Windows Boot Manager, select from the two upper entries. Newer computers have almost all x64 architecture.

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5. Files are loaded.

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6. Set and confirm the area and keyboard layout.

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7. To access the actual installation files, log in once with your own TF account. Place "tf \" before your user name.

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8. Look for the language of the operating system (English / German) and whether a raw Windows ("DVD version") or a completely preconfigured and activated Windows shall be installed. The preconfigured versions of Windows include, among other things, Office 2021 (german/english, full version, activated), OpenClassic-Windows-Shell, LibreOffice, Acrobat Reader, Thunderbird, Firefox and TreeSizeFree.

We strongly recommend Windows 10 LTSC for PCs at the Faculty! That is the professional Version. However: With current hardware, driver support by LTSC could be inadequate (i.e. with video- and image editing, too). Then please install the Windows 10 EDU version. For latest hardware, you can choose Windows 11 Pro Education as well.

OS Choosing

9. Formatting the hard drive resp. SSD. If no partitions are displayed here, simply click "new", accept the defaults and continue. If there are already partitions, click "extended selection", delete the existing partitions and click "new". Attention: The old data will be erased!

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10. Now the actual Windows installation process starts. Here are two notes:

  1. The installation key can usually be skipped (preconfigured versions of Windows are already activated). In the case of problems or in the case of Windows raw installations (DVD version), a KMS client set-up key can also be entered, which you can find here.
  2. For Windows 10/11, you do should not set up a Windows online account. (Tips on this).

 

To be carried out by hand after installation

  1. EventIf necessary, activation via the KMS service of the CAU Computing Center and adding to the TF Windows domain (not required for preconfigured installations of computers).
  2. In preconfigured installations, the Windows name is a default-combination of the term "desktop" and some numbers, like desktop-d78s99. This must be changed to the "real" DNS name (which you can ask the IT Group for), for the PC to work correctly!